DotA 2’s Manila Major: Valve’s Next Major Esports Event

Valve’s third Major for the competitive season is next, and it will be held in Manila, Philippines. The venue will be the Mall of Asia, and it will happen from 7 June to 12 June. Tickets will go on sale on 12th March at 1PM SGT.

The Manila Major has a fixed prize pool of $3 million, and will be produced by PGL, also known as Professional Gamers’ League. PGL has a lot of experience with hosting big CS:GO LAN tournaments such as DreamHack, and their own tournaments are considered to have the best production in recent eSports history.

Roster changes will be locked for this season on 27Th March, 2016. Rosters will stay locked until completion of The International, which means this is the final opportunity for teams to make changes to their player lineups. Players are already beginning to change teams here and there.

It’s obvious viewers will be a little more skeptical before purchasing tickets this time due to the bad viewing experience and problems that the production team faced in the Shanghai Major, and it has indeed left a bad taste in many fans’ mouths. Production issues continued even after Team Secret were crowned as champions as hotel organizers started cleaning up players’ personal equipment without any notice, leading to the misplacement of many keyboards, mice, laptops and even Rotk’s Maserati car keys.

South East Asia is full of enthusiastic eSports players and fans, but there is a clear lack of professional tournaments and opportunities. Getting into the scene is extremely hard and it’s even harder to make a living out of it, unlike in China and many western countries. With Valve focusing on hosting a $3 million tournament in Philippines, it’s quite likely certain things will change. The only thing we can hope for from the Manila Major is an amazing tournament of DOTA 2 without any issues like the last Major, and some great games and performances.